


Sailing Lessons

by Ms_Starlight



Series: Prompt Exercises [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Captain Cobra - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 07:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6071334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_Starlight/pseuds/Ms_Starlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry is having trouble with his math homework, and Killian decides to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sailing Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for prairiepirate who prompted me with "Hook/Henry + Lesson." Henry is probably not old enough in the show to be studying trig yet, but in the grand OUAT tradition, let's all just wave our hands and pretend otherwise. :)

Armed with a bag of lunch from Granny’s, Killian walked into the sheriff station fully expecting to sit down to a romantic, midday interlude with Emma. Over the past few weeks of relative peace following Rumplestiltskin’s ejection from town, he’d made a habit of stopping by the station regularly to see her. At first, the warm meal had merely been a pretext — something to justify his appearance. But as their lunches became a regular occurrence and grew more intimate, ending with tender kisses and reluctant goodbyes, he’d come to realize that he was not only welcome but _wanted_.

He doubted Emma would send him away if he dared show up without a bag full of grilled cheese and onion rings, or whatever else Granny had decided to deep fat fry that day, but he liked taking care of her, so he kept bringing them anyway.

When he pushed through the door, he heard her voice, clipped and impatient.

“Listen, I don’t care about what kind of spells you might have had on your garden in the Enchanted Forest,” she was saying, her back to the door of her office and the phone held up to her ear. “I’m not going to open up an investigation because someone picked some of your lettuce.”

Killian glanced from her to David’s desk, where Henry sat with a book open in front of him, a pencil hanging loose from his fingers, and his head propped sullenly in one hand.

Henry started when Killian set his bag down on top of the desk next to him.

“Oh! Sorry. I didn’t hear you come in,” Henry said with a bashful smile.

Killian gestured to the open book. “Something troubling you, lad?”

“Well…sort of.” He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Math.”

“Ah. You’re working on your lessons?”

“Trying to.” Henry plopped his pencil down and sighed. “I just don’t see the point. I’m never going to need this stuff. I mean, we’re in _Storybrooke_. What good is trigonometry going to do me when the next bad guy shows up?”

Killian shrugged, not sure what trigonometry was exactly. “You never know what might prove useful in the future. Best to hedge your bets.”

“Yeah? Well, I can guarantee you it won’t be _this_.” Henry waved a hand over his open book. “I should be taking lessons in swordplay. Or — I don’t know — horseback riding. Not studying these stupid triangles. I don’t even understand what I’m supposed to be doing with them anyway.”

Brow furrowed, Killian perched on the edge of the desk. “Let me see.”

Henry gave him a skeptical look but pushed the book over to him anyway. Killian only had to glance at it for a moment before he realized what it was.

From behind them, Emma’s voice echoed out of her office. “For the last time, this isn’t a legal matter. Put up a fence.” She slammed the phone down and sighed.

Killian glanced up as she walked out.

“Oh. Hey!” She pushed a bit of hair out of her eyes. “You brought me lunch.”

“Aye.” He extended an arm, and she walked into reach for a brief kiss. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you to enjoy it on your own. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to take Henry out for a while.”

Henry cast him a curious glance, half-excited and half-confused.

Emma looked between them and shrugged. “Um. Sure, I guess. Where are you going?”

“Down to the docks.”

Henry’s face lit up.

“Okay. I’ll come pick him up when I’m done with my shift.” Emma smiled and patted her son on the back. “But you’ll have to finish your homework when you get home.”

“I will!” He grabbed his backpack and pulled it on.

“Ah!” Killian stopped him as he went to run to the door. “Your book.”

“Mom can take it home. I won’t need it.”

Killian gestured him back with his hook. “Just…bring it along.”

With only a little big of dragging his feet, Henry fetched his math book and shoved it into his backpack, then made a show of looking away when Killian leaned in to kiss Emma goodbye. But the moment they were out the door, his boyish enthusiasm won out.

“Are we going sailing?”

“Aye.”

Henry broke into a run. “I learned all the bits of rigging you told me about last time,” he shouted over his shoulder. “I’ll show you!”

When they arrived at the docks, Killian directed Henry to the boat that he’d been renting. It had nothing on the _Jolly Roger_ , but few ships did. Still, it would do quite nicely for what he had planned for today. Henry climbed aboard, fairly vibrating with joy, and set about reciting to Killian everything that he had learned about ships since they had started spending time together. He leaned against the mast and listened, his heart warmed. This was what he’d once imagined he might have with Baelfire, and as Henry turned to face him, the wind in his hair and a huge smile on his face, the boy’s resemblance to Milah struck within him the bittersweet chord of nostalgia.

“So,” Henry finally said. “Where are we going?”

“Right now? Nowhere. There’s work to do first.” Killian gestured to his backpack. “Get out a piece of paper and a pencil.”

Henry did as he asked.

“Now,” Killian began, turning until he found the wind in his face. Beside him, Henry did the same. “Feel the wind? What direction is it coming from?”

Henry looked around, getting his bearings. “Umm…from the south?”

“Excellent. It’s a steady breeze. Let’s say fifteen knots. We’re going to sail over to the lighthouse, and we want to get there as fast as we can. So let’s plot a course.”

He took Henry’s pencil and sketched out a rough outline of Storybrooke’s coast.

Henry pointed to where they were headed. “If we want to go north, then we want to keep the ship pointed as close to north as possible. Right?”

Killian smiled indulgently at him. “Let’s try it.”

They got the ship ready to launch, and Killian obediently turned the sails in the direction Henry told him to. As they set off, the water parting in front of their bow and the shore growing distant behind them, he paused next to Henry who was standing at the railing enjoying the wind in his face.

“Notice anything different?” he asked. “Any change in the wind?”

Henry paused. “Yeah, actually. It feels…umm…slower?”

“What you’re feeling now is called the _apparent wind_ ,” Killian explained. “The true wind is blowing from the south at fifteen knots. But we’re traveling in the same direction at ten knots. So all we and the sails above us can feel is…?”

“Five knots?” Henry guessed.

“That’s right.” Killian bent down next to him and drew a triangle on the piece of paper, labeling each side.

“Alright, lad. Here’s how we figure out the fastest way to get to that lighthouse.”

Henry glanced at him warily, but sucked in a breath and nodded as they began their calculations.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Emma pulled up to the docks in her bug and found them sitting together on a bench, one of Henry’s books held open between them. Emma wondered what sort of story her son was telling Hook now as she turned off the engine and got out. Henry had taken it upon himself to familiarize her boyfriend with all the various pop culture allusions and technological advancements that so frequently confused him, which was both helpful and a little annoying. She kind of liked Killian’s occasional befuddlement. It was adorable, somehow, that a dread pirate such as himself was so innocently unaware of things like microwaves, light sabers, chewing gum, and flavored vodka (that one had been her, and a bit of a mistake).

She shoved her hands into her coat pockets as she walked up to them, expecting to hear Henry explaining who the X-Men were or why Frodo had needed to destroy the One Ring.

She was beyond surprised when she caught the first hint of their conversation.

“So, A equals the cosine of B plus C minus…”

Her steps faltered.

They were working on his math homework?

Killian pointed at the book and spoke low enough that she couldn’t make out his words, but Henry smiled and quickly wrote something down in his notebook.

Her heart stung with a funny little pang she didn’t know how to name. And she stood there for a moment, watching them — her son, engaged and happy next to her boyfriend, Captain Hook, who was looking more like a damn good father than a feared pirate and reformed bad boy.

Henry spotted her. “Hey, Mom!”

She walked up to them, her legs not quite steady.

“Hey. What’re you guys doing?”

“Apparently, this realm calls it trigonometry,” Killian replied with a grin.

He knew trigonometry. Killian Jones, the man who didn’t know what Jell-o was, could do complex math. She didn’t know why it surprised her. But it did.

Of _course_ he’d know plenty of math. Sailing and navigating by charts and stars and old, nautical instruments was probably full of it. Somewhere along the way, he’d been well educated. It was part of him and his past that she’d never put much thought into. And looking down at him now, she wondered what else she’d never considered about this man. How else might he come to surprise her?

“Thanks for the help!” Henry said and slammed his book shut. “Are you going back to Granny’s? You should have dinner with us. I’m starving!”

Killian looked up at her and her already fragile heart turned to mush.

“Swan? Mind if I join you?”

She offered him her arm. “Not at all.”


End file.
